The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for storing, transporting, and deploying a multi-point soft mechanical restraint system and other restraint components that may be easily and quickly applied by a first person on a subject being held in a restrained position by a second person.
There are many thousands of human service and law enforcement agencies and facilities that provide care and supervision to aggressive, suicidal, and emotionally disturbed persons (hereinafter commonly referred to as “EDPs”). The staff and officers working in these agencies regularly come into physical contact with the EDPs through the use of physical subduing or restraint holds when the EDP becomes aggressive. Although there are many types of well-known physical subduing holds, the safest and most advantageous physical subduing hold is a Primary Restraint Technique (PRT) described in greater detail in a commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,091 entitled “Apparatus and Method for Safely Maintaining a Restraining Hold on a Person”.
While restraint holds are useful for relatively short periods of time, often restraint of the EDP is necessary for an extended period of time. In such cases, the EDP must be restrained using some sort of a mechanical restraint system. Typically, this involves placing wrist and ankle restraints on the EDP so that the EDP may be restrained for an extended period of time at the place of the restraint hold, or, transported to another location while wearing the restraints. Also, for extended restraints, special beds with integrated restraints are used in many facilities. Previously known restraint systems involve mechanical locks—for example, the popular Posey TAT restraint utilizes a mechanical spring-loaded lock that require a special key to open. It takes at least 4-5 staff members to successfully apply such restraints at a speed of no lower than 2-3 minutes per restraint. During application of the restraints, the EDP must be held down and poses a constant threat to the staff members until the restraining process is complete. Furthermore, removal of such restraints in emergency situations (i.e., in a medical emergency) takes a significant amount of time since a key must be located and used to open each restraint on each limb—this is especially problematic because without the key, which may not be immediately available in case of an emergency, the restraints cannot be removed at all. Manipulation of the restraints once attached is difficult as well requiring several people to pull webbing through a complex system of buckles and connectors. Another problem that often arises, is that a bed with integrated mechanical restrains for restraining the EDP for extended periods of time may not be available when necessary, thus forcing the staff members to find alternate long-term restraint means.
Yet another disadvantage of previously known mechanical restraint systems is that by only restraining the EDP's arms and legs they still enable the EDP to struggle and potentially hurt themselves.
Finally, complex previously known restraint systems are expensive, heavy, and require extensive training to use properly. This is especially true of beds with integrated restraint systems.
The commonly assigned co-pending U.S. patent applications entitled “Soft Circular Restraint Apparatus and Method”, “Rapid Deployment Soft Restraint Apparatus and Method”, “Multi-Point Soft Restraint Apparatus and Method” and the commonly assigned co-pending U.S. provisional patent application entitled “Articulated Upper Body Protector Restraint Apparatus and Method”, advantageously solve all of the above problems, and are all hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. However, because the various inventive restraint systems have many individual components, there is some challenge in storing, transporting and deploying them correctly.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for quickly and easily deploying a mechanical restraint system, along with a multi-point restraint securing system and optional upper body protection system, for securing a restrained subject to a stationary or mobile structure. It would further be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for easily transporting and storing the mechanical restraint system along with the multi-point restraint securing system and other optional restraint components.